Summary

He's back. By (and in some cases, despite) popular demand, Sir Apropos of Nothing once again stalks the pages of literature, leaving unmistakable footprints wherever he treads. Apropos is the unlikely noble whose life began in the lowest of ways: as the result of a gang assault by a group of drunken knights on a helpless tavern wench.Last time out, Apropos attempted to seize control of his own fate, and ended up with, appropriately, nothing. Time has passed since he fled the kingdom of Runcible, and Apropos leads a quiet existence as a tavern owner. All that changes abruptly, however, when the sorceress Sharee re-enters his life with the forces of the warlike Lord Bellicose hard on her heels. They want something they're convinced she has stolen. She tells Apropos that it's not true. Thus the medieval era's most notorious antihero suddenly finds himself once again in the middle of events of which he wants no part.Apropos, a helpless cog in destiny's gear mechanism, is hauled into the middle of another unlikely adventure that finds him dying of thirst and exhaustion in the gods-forsaken desert known as the Tragic Waste. But death is far too simple a fate for Apropos. When he awakens, he is astounded to discover that he is now a fearsome scourge of the land known as Wuin...a deadly and despised peacelord (the politically correct term for warlord) with tens of thousands of troops at his command, cities filled with helpless people trembling before him, and an adoring and sexy consort. How he came to this, what he will do once he discovers the terrible price attached to his new station in life, and how the mystic gem called the Eye of the Beholder fits into all of it are just afew of the challenges our reluctant hero will encounter along the Woad to Wuin.

Author Notes

Peter David was born September 23, 1956 in New Jersey, and raised in Pennsylvania. David originally tried to work in Journalism but finally got a job at Marvel Comics as Asst. Direct Sales Manager. He wrote some "fill in" comics for Spider-man and eventually got to the point where he was the regular writer for several titles. David has had over fifty novels published, including numerous appearances on the New York Times Bestsellers List. His greatest fame comes from the Star Trek novels, where he is the most popular writer of the series, with Imzadi being one of the best selling Star Trek novels of all time.

David is also co-creator and author of the bestselling New Frontier series for Pocket Books and has also had short stories appear in such collections as Shock Rock, Shock Rock II and Otherwere, as well as Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. David had an award-winning twelve-year run on The Incredible Hulk, and he has also worked on such popular titles as Supergirl, Young Justice, Soulsearchers and Company, Aquaman, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, X-Factor, Star Trek, Wolverine, The Phantom, Sachs & Violens and many others. He has also written comic book-related novels, such as The Hulk: What Savage Beast, and co-edited the Ultimate Hulk short story collection.

His opinion column "But I Digress" has been running in the industry trade newspaper The Comic Buyers Guide for nearly a decade, and in that time has been the paper's consistently most popular feature and was also collected into a trade paperback edition. Peter is the co-creator, with popular science fiction icon Bill Mumy of the Cable Ace Award-nominated science fiction series Space Cases, which ran for two seasons on Nickelodeon. He has also written several scripts for the Hugo Award winning TV series Babylon 5, and the sequel series Crusade, as well as the animated series Roswell. David has also written several films for Full Moon Entertainment and co-produced two of them, including two installments in the popular Trancers series as well as the science fiction western spoof Oblivion, which won the Gold Award at the 1994 Houston International Film Festival for best Theatrical Feature Film, Fantasy/Horror category.

(Bowker Author Biography) Peter David is the author of several bestselling Star Trek novels, including I, Q; Q-in-Law; Imzadi; Vendetta; and the bestselling New Frontier original Star Trek series. He lives in Patchogue, NY.

Booklist Review

Having seen the good and the bad sides of heroism (more often the latter), Sir Apropos of Nothing believes he has retired to the quiet life of an innkeeper. But the sorceress Sharee barges back into his life, and thereafter she and he are pursued up hill and down dale by ferocious, vengeful Sir Bellicose. After enough nightmarish doings for one novel, Sir Apropos awakes in the desert land Wuin to face new perils. For the host of dauntless warriors, the thousands of adoring subjects, and the more physically adoring consort whom he meets aren't what they seem, and by tale's end, Sir Apropos and Sharee have escaped by the skin of their teeth, Wuin is ruined, the loyal subjects are divided into charred and uncharred corpses, and the wandering antihero beholds the talismanic Eye Eye of the Beholder with his own very jaundiced peeper. David mixes ghastliness and giggles deftly and with the near absence of lapsed taste that continues to distinguish the saga as a major feat of contemporary humorous fantasy. --Roland Green

Publisher's Weekly Review

This sequel to the wildly successful Sir Apropos of Nothing (2001) starts off with a bawdy send-up of Lord of the Rings, but quickly segues into its own territory with the appearance of a mysterious Visionary at Aproposs bar, Bugger Hall. The man tells our antihero, You will become a shadow of your former self while escaping to the Tragic Waste on the Road to Ruin (or is that Woad to Wuin ?), just as Sharee, Aproposs weaver companion from the first volume, bursts in and begs for his help in escaping Lord Beliquose. The very loud lord wants a powerful gem, the Eye of the Beholder, which the virtually powerless Sharee possesses and which Apropos promptly steals during their escape into the dominion of the Rockmunchers beneath Bugger Hall. Unfortunately, the gem enchants Apropos during their subsequent arrival at the Tragic Waste and turns him into Peacelord of Wuin, a barbarian who wears blue woad on his face before battle and has, as his consort, the beautiful but possibly quite wicked Lady Kate. When Apropos shakes off his amnesia, he resolves to reverse his fate"and that of Sharees in a world turned upside down by violence. He also hopes to avenge his mothers death. The wisecracking wordplay that fans have come to expect skips smoothly off the page, lifting this satirical fantasy into a class all its own. Juggling goofy entertainment with gritty philosophical musing, David should build plenty of momentum for the promised third act, Tong Lashing. (Aug. 2) FYI: The author of more than 50 books, David is the co-creator with John Ordover of the New Frontier Star Trek series, while his TV credits include episodes of Babylon 5 and Crusade. He is also the author of a revised, updated novel, Knight Life (Forecasts, May 27). (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Library Journal Review

After his last adventure resulted in the destruction of a magical artifact, Sir Apropos settles down for a peaceful life as a tavern-keeper. When a wandering Visionary makes a prediction that launches the reluctant hero on another quest that leaves him stranded and dying in the middle of a desert, Sir "Poe" awakens to find himself the leader of a mighty and ruthless warband bent on the conquest of the world. Continuing the tale begun in Sir Apropos of Nothing, David takes another poke at the conventions of epic fantasy, this time targeting the epic heroes of sword and sorcery. In between large doses of bawdy humor and outrageous puns, the author spins an engaging tale of high fantasy featuring an appealing hero. For most fantasy collections. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.